Resources to support research activities

 

Developing Searches

Critical appraisal: We can train you to recognise different study designs and to identify the strengths and weaknesses of research studies.

Locate books and journals: We can help you find books and journals in your subject area and provide a document supply service.

See what other people in the Trust are publishing: Journal articles published by WUTH staff are posted on the Library Blog.

To Sign up for evidence updates please visit our KnowledgeShare service page.

 

National Institute for Health Research Journals

Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation: Evaluations of new treatments, including those intended to prevent disease, coveringtherapeutics (small molecule and biologic), psychological interventions, public health, diagnostics, and medical devices

Health Services and Delivery Research: Research includes quality, access and organisation of health services, costs and outcomes, and implementation

Health Technology Assessment: Evaluations of health technologies, including interventions to promote health, prevent and treat disease, and improve rehabilitation and long-term care

Programme Grants for Applied Research: With particular emphasis on conditions causing significant disease burden. Research includes the promotion of health, prevention of ill health, and optimal disease management (including safety and quality).

Public Health Research: The research is multi-disciplinary and broad, covering a range of interventions that improve public health.

 

Analyse your data: The McArdle Library loans digital transcription kits to help you record and transcribe interviews.

 

Publishing Research

Think. Check. Submit. -provides researchers with the tools they need to decide which publishing venue is the most appropriate for their work. Think.Check.Submit. encourages researchers to look out for the characteristics displayed by predatory publishers and use the checklist of questions to evaluate publishers when considering where to submit their research.

 

 

Useful websites

WUTH Research and Development team: local support and advice for researchers

Research and Development Info: general advice on research, training and funding.

Research Design Services: free advice on research design to researchers in the North West who are developing proposals for national, peer-reviewed funding competitions for applied health or social care research

NHS R&D Forum: a network for those involved in managing and supporting R&D in health and social care

National Institute for Health Research (NIHR): Department of Health organisation that provides details of funding information, research guidance, news, jobs and publications

National Research Ethics Service (NRES): facilitates and promotes ethical research and also protects the rights and safety of research participants 

RD Learning: information on post qualification training courses offered by Higher Education Institutions, Research Networks and Professional bodies, all with an emphasis on research

Medical Research Council: publicly funded organisation supporting research in medical sciences

Wellcome Trust: global charitable foundation supporting biomedical research and the medical humanities

Cancer Research UK, Cancer Stats: Cancer incidence, mortality and survival statistics for the UK and around the world

North West Cancer Intelligence Service: intelligence data, information and resources relating to cancer services in the region

CASP critical appraisal checklists: checklists to enable you to appraise research studies in a systematic and straightforward way.
Discern: A valid and reliable tool for assessing the quality of written information on treatment choices for a health problem. 

Understanding Health Research: A tool for making sense of health studies​

Did you know that there are people who can help you to design your research, write your protocols and help you to seek funding?

The National Institute for Health Research Design Service for the North West provides all these services at no charge.

Publishing research and being Open

BMJ- Guidance for newly qualified doctors: Writing for publication is a guide published by BMJ. It is useful for those new to publishing and especially junior doctors. 

An introduction to open access: An introduction to Open Access from JISC (the UK higher, further education and skills sectors’ not-for-profit organisation). This is a useful introduction to what Open Access actually means and the difference between gold and green Open Access.

Licensing types examples: A helpful guide to the different Creative Commons licenses and what they mean. 

Sherpa: Sherpa Romeo explains publisher policies for how you can share different versions of your research papers (normally divided into the submitted version i.e. before peer review, the accepted manuscript i.e. after peer review but before publisher typesetting, and the published version). This resource helps to inform where you publish your work by highlighting what permissions you retain.

Funders and their policies (some of these are on the page already, but the organisation rather than the funding specifically)

MRC

NIHR 

Wellcome Trust

 

Data and Impact

DCC (Data Curation Centre): Good Research Data Management is a key part of any research project in order to ensure longevity, making data reproducible and the ability to share your research data behind your publications. This helpful guide from the DCC (Data Curation Centre) helps you to consider the key aspects of managing your data successfully. 

Free digital badges: Free digital badges from Altmetric that show the reach and influence of your published research.

ORCID: ORCID is a free identifier for researchers (especially useful if your surname is quite popular).

Re3Data: Re3Data collates research repositories on different specialisms.

 

If you are thinking about writing for publication there are resources, hints and tips and details of useful articles to help you.